CH9: Lore and Class System of Arun
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CH9: Lore and Class System of Arun
For a town library, there were quite a lot of books to go through.
Most of them were on the common beasts and plants in the world. The more native they were to the town, the more the detail on them.
This trend was quite helpful in identifying beast that could potentially be immediate threats to me as well as those I didn't need to focus on for the moment.
I spent a lot of time catching up on the numerous encyclopaedia of plants, medical or otherwise, and their uses.
I planned to use Herbology as my cover profession so I had to brush up my knowledge. Also, Herbology was a big help to Assassins... in more ways than one.
I won't bore you on the details of the herbs and beasts, what I would mention is the lore of this world.
I will admit, the lore I'm about to tell you is based on my piecing together of stories from different sources.
Many a time, the writers of the books grossly exaggerate their records. Other times, what they wrote were pure nonsense when examined from a realistic perspective.
This was what I can reasonably say is the true lore of the world of Arun.
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In the immediate years proceeding the great catastrophe which ushered in the existence of mana, and ended the prehistoric times, It is believed humans didn't originally have the ability to use and control mana.
Humanity lived underground in caves which offered the little semblance of security from the beasts which could harness the powerful energy.
Humanity survived by risking their lives to forage the land and hunt the lowest class of beast with great sacrifices, and most importantly by procreating fast.
In the current era, the gestation period of a human child was thirteen months, but back then, it was believe to be a mere six months at most.
This allow the homo genus (humanity) to have a large population which prevented it from being wiped out in any one catastrophe.
All this change one day when a tribe of ancient humans discovered a Mana Vein which just gave birth to a Mana Soul.
Since the cave was large and the people couldn't make use of mana, the humans settled there without bringing harm to the infant Mana Soul.
In other words, the Mana Soul grew up believing itself to be a member of the tribe.
Generations after generation of tribespeople accompanied the Mana Soul through its long life.
Eventually, it reached maturity and gained the complete understanding of mana manipulation Mana Souls are known for.
So, it taught humans how to wield Mana.
Later on, humans evolved and began awakening their Pangea at set times until the entire population was able to use the mystical energy.
*
This is the most objective, bias-free short story I can tell you on the lore of this world.
However, if you ask me, I don't believe the truth was as 'beautiful' as this.
Research from my first life suggest that human nature is pretty much the same now as it was during the prehistoric era, something I'm inclined to believe in.
The same good and vile attitudes of humanity should be the same no matter the era you look.
In every era, you would find kind and meek people. At the same time, you'll also have vile and cruel people. There will also be ambitious people.
There would be every kind of human being you know in every era.
So, ask yourselves.
Do you truly believe all humans would look on without doing anything when there was a being capable of almost perfectly manipulating the very life energy of the world living with them generation after generation?
Do you believe the humans of that era wouldn't hatch a plot or scheme targeting that being?
You might be thinking that I'm thinking too badly of humanity. I agree I probably am.
Psychologist believe we see the world the way we are.
I know someone like me, who's desperate to survive and hungry for power, would definitely scheme against the naive Mana Soul who trusts my tribe. That's why I believe... No! That's why I KNOW someone would scheme against it.
Don't get me wrong, it doesn't have to be a nefarious scheme.
I believe this was what likely happened.
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The naive Mana Soul was sad about generation after generation of humans it knew and was friends with dying one after another.
The humans mentioned they didn't have mana and so couldn't live long like it.
So, eventually, the Mana Soul decided to pass on its mana to one of its human friends... family.
It could be an accident... or by design, but the Mana Soul died by having all its mana absorbed by that person, thus giving birth to the first human to ever wield mana and awaken their Pangea.
It was this person who then passed on the mana that awaken the Pangea of other humans, before also dying themselves.
The humans who now had Pangea and wielded mana gave birth to children who naturally awakened Pangea themselves. Consequently birthing a new specie of the homo genus.
Eventually, either the new humans wiped out their 'primitive' cousins or they let the beast get to them, the new humans became the only human specie left on the planet!
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I have no evidence that supports my story. The only supporters of my hypothesised history are scant comments in different literature I've read and a logical thought process based on proven facts from my previous life.
First of all, it takes something big to cause an evolution.
Just being taught mana wasn't enough to cause an evolution in humanity; not in the few number of years after the first human awakened to the time when human awakening became a norm.
If all recorded history were to be trusted, the time between both events was less than fifty years.
Humans learning a new knowledge wasn't enough to lead to an evolution of the species within fifty years. If not, the education sector of my previous life would have ushered in many evolutions of the human species.
This is why I believe the first human likely absorbed life mana of the Mana Soul. Only a strong energy like this could trigger an evolution within a short period of time.
And I believe there are people who know this.
If not, there won't be people lusting for Mana Souls. Most of them were the rulers of humanity.
If Mana Souls and humans were on good terms like in our history, there wouldn't be a reason for the Souls to avoid us like a plague.
Most of the 15 known Mana Souls were neutral to humans at best, some were outright hostile. And it was a known fact that Mana Souls could inherit the memories of its predecessor from the world's Mana.
Combine these two points, I leave you to come up with your answer.
Second, why do I think the first awakener died after awakening?
Well, it isn't explicitly said, but there were some clues. For example, the first awakener was christened 'Pangea Saint'.
I may be wrong but the last I check, 'Saints' were people who died doing a good or something socially accepted for a group of people against all odds.
Another thing is that it's said that Saint Pangea's Pangea is called the only SS-class Pangea, known as the 'Mother of Pangea'.
Once again, I leave it to you to form a conclusion.
Finally, why do I think the new humans killed old humans or at least allowed them to die?
Simple, because that's what happened in my first life!
What? You don't believe me? Why do you think Homo sapiens are the only human species left? What happen to the other human species? The Homo erectus, Home antecessor, Homo floresiensis (Hobbits), Homo neanderthalensis (Neanderthals)?
While some of them died in the battle of Natural Selection, most of them died in racial war!
If that's not enough proof, look even within Homo sapiens, don't we also fight amongst ourselves based on skin colour?
This was even when both sides were equal.
Now imagine when one side was clearly superior to the other. What do you think would happen? They will keep the burden around when they were waging a war against the beast?
Now you tell me, do you still think my deduced lore is far-fetched?
*
It seems I digressed a bit. It tends to happen for subjects I'm passionate about. You'll get used to it eventually.
Anyway, let's shift focus to something that will actually affect my story going forward.
Stratifications of Power.
(Ironically, this further lends voice to my previous deductions.)
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Like Loki said, the humans of Arun like to actively divide themselves into strata or classes.
The world of Arun wasn't particularly peaceful.
There was a never ending war between humans and beasts. Consequently, power and the willingness to fight was paramount.
So, I suspect, as a survival method, and a genius one at that, the humans of Arun based their social classes on your individual strength and war contribution against beasts.
The classes were from the lowest G-class to the highest SS-class.
The stronger you were and the more beast you've killed, the higher your status in the world.
This caused many ambitious humans to flood to the battlefront. It was also why humans claimed large expanse of land as the species domain, and yet it was still expanding.
Of course, everything that had a pro, had a con as well.
For a civilisation that looked so highly on strength and power, those who lacked it are often completely disregarded by those who do.
It wasn't strange for parents to disown children or children to disown parents just because the other side was weak.
It shouldn't have been much of a problem, except the weak and strong were often decided during awakening.
Every human's mana core can form ten rings i.e. the ten stages of mana.
The first ring is formed after a human reaches 100 MAC%.
The subsequent rings are formed through further compressing mana onto the manifestation of the Pangea in the Mana Core. In other words, a Pangea bares the stages of mana.
Consequently, the grade of a Pangea determines a person's clear potential.
The lower the grade, the lower the number of rings a Pangea can easily bare, hence the lower the power that person would likely attain.
The grades were determined by colour.
From the lowest to the highest; we have Milky-White, Blood-Red, Green, Blue, Violet, Black, Silver, Yellow Gold and Red Gold.
(I'll leave a table in the glossary for it to make sense.)
It's no surprise the grade of a person's Pangea once determined the standing of that person in society.
Milky-White Pangea could only bare 2 rings and were called G-class Pangea (Trash).
Blood-Red Pangea could bare 3 rings and were called F-class Pangea.
Green Pangea could bare 4 rings and were called E-class Pangea.
Blue Pangea could bare 5 rings and were called D-class Pangea.
Violet Pangea could bare 6 rings and were called C-class Pangea.
Black Pangea could bare 7 rings and were called B-class Pangea.
Silver Pangea could bare 8 rings and were called A-class Pangea.
Yellow-Gold Pangea could bare 9 rings and were called S-class Pangea.
Incidentally, there was a Red-Gold Pangea believed to be capable of easily bearing all 10 rings. It was called the SS-class Pangea.
Only the Pangea Saint was ever known to possess the SS-class Pangea.
In fact, if not for historical records mentioning this, society wouldn't believe such a Pangea class existed.
In the early days, the class of one's Pangea determined your class and how the society treated you.
However, history proved that this was a narrow-minded way of doing things.
The colour of one's Pangea only told innate potential, nothing more. It didn't mean one couldn't rise above the limit of potential.
This soon became increasingly apparent as more and more underrated people began to become stronger than they were expected to be. They in turn used their newfound power to torment those who had tormented them.
An S-class Pangea meant you could grow to have 9 rings relatively easily compared to others. It didn't guarantee you would reach 9 rings. Similarly, having a G-class Pangea didn't mean you couldn't reach 10 rings. It just meant you'd have to work exponentially harder than others.
Also, everyone irrespective of their Pangea potential would face an uphill task to advance from the ninth to the tenth ring.
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There was once a situation were a celebrated possessor of an S-class Pangea was killed because he tried to bully his age mate with an F-class Pangea without knowing the F-class was at the level of 8 rings while he was at only 5 rings.
He died a useless death because no one wanted to offend a powerhouse for a dead genius.
Events like this became the norm and then, with the eventual creation of the Hunter's Union, the societal norms were changed by those in power.
The Hunter's Union is the only Trans-border organisation in Arun. It was the Apex power in the human domain.
Hunters belonging to the Union were powerhouses whose only focus was killing beasts. Nobody in the Union cared about the grade of your Pangea, your family background, what you ate for lunch, who you were screwing or anything else.
Not even the number of rings you had.
All the cared about was your power.
What rank of beast can you kill? How many beasts have you killed? What can you offer to humanity?
This was the determinant of status within the Union.
As the premier organisation in the human domain, it was no surprise that its norms soon became the norms of the world.
The strong determine the rules of the world; the weak can only wag their lips!
The Union gave its hunters classes based on the highest rank of beast they could hunt irrespective of other things like their rings of power or the Pangea Potential.
Also, in order to differentiate it from the Pangea system, the hunters were given a title before their name based on their class.
A person who could hunt a Beast-class beast (equivalent to 2-rings humans) alone was ranked as a G-class hunter. They were titled Novice.
A person who could hunt a Monster-class beast (equivalent to 3-rings humans) alone was ranked as an F-class hunter. They were titled Beginner.
A person who could hunt a Threat-class beast (equivalent to 4-rings humans) alone was ranked as an E-class hunter. They were titled Expert.
A person who could hunt a Terror-class beast (equivalent to 5-rings humans) alone was ranked as a D-class hunter. They were titled Knight.
A person who could hunt a Destroyer-class beast (equivalent to 6-rings humans) alone was ranked as a C-class hunter. They were titled Noble.
A person who could hunt a Calamity-class beast (equivalent to 7-rings humans) alone was ranked as a B-class hunter. They were titled Lord.
A person who could hunt a Catastrophe-class beast (equivalent to 8-rings humans) alone was ranked as an A-class hunter. They were titled Champion.
A person who could hunt an Extinction-class beast (equivalent to 9-rings humans) alone was ranked as an S-class hunter. They were titled Hero.
A person who could hunt an Apocalypse-class beast (equivalent to 10-rings humans) alone was ranked as an SS-class hunter. They were titled Saints.
This class system stabilised the chaos since it was based on the merit a person achieved.
You don't like a person getting better treatment than you? Then go get a higher merit than the person, then you'll receive better treatment.
It ushered in an era of human dominance on the battlefront.
Everyone soon wanted to have a hunter rank.
However, another problem soon cropped up.
This class system didn't consider everyone working on the battlefield.
It neglected people who couldn't kill beast due to their profession or abilities, however, whose contribution couldn't be ignored.
There were the non-combat personnel of the Hunter's union.
They included blacksmiths who forged weapons; healers, doctors, alchemist, herbalist who healed the sick and injured; engineers who build structures that defended against the beast; farmers who grew crops for those on the battlefield etc.
The top powers of the Union realised they also needed to create a corresponding class system for these people.
And so, the previous system was called the Hunter-class system for combatants of the Union.
They then created a new system which they called the Lifestyle-class system for the non-combatants.
This class was based on the beast or combat class a product of the non-combatant worked on.
From lowest to highest, they were called; Novice, Beginner, Apprentice, Journeyman, Adept, Senior, Master, Grandmaster and Sage!
(To be continued...)
AUTHOR'S RAMBLING
Sorry if this chapter came off as an info dump. I just wanted to get this out there quickly so that it won't look strange once I start bringing it up in the story.
I think I at least made it look interesting, right? 😉😉
P.S: Don't forget to check Auxiliary volume for summarised class system.
I drop another chapter to try to make up for the info dump. It will be shorter than the usual though.
[A.N: If you're enjoying the book, please leave a review, vote with power stones and golden tickets. Gifts are also very welcomed. Also, please check out my other book Soldiers of Time. Thanks.]